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The CFEPS Kuiper Belt Survey: Strategy and presurvey results |
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| Authors: | RL Jones B Gladman P Rousselot JJ Kavelaars G Bernabeu JWm Parker M Holman A Doressoundiram H Scholl |
| Institution: | a Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z1, Canada b Observatoire de Besançon, BP 1615, F-25010 Besançon Cedex, France c 5071 West Saanich Rd, Victoria, BC V9E2E7, Canada d Departamento de Fisica, Ingenieria de Sistemas y Teoria de la Señal, E.P.S.A., Universidad de Alicante, Apartado de Correos 99, Alicante 03080, Spain e Department of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80302, USA f Department of Astronomy, 418 Space Sciences Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA g Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Mail Stop 51, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA h Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2860 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA i Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique, Observatoire de Paris, F-92195 Meudon Principal Cedex, France j Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation, PO Box 1597, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA k Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, BP 4229, Boulevard de L'Observatory, F-06304 Nice Cedex 4, France |
| Abstract: | We present the data acquisition strategy and characterization procedures for the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS), a sub-component of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. The survey began in early 2003 and as of summer 2005 has covered 430 square degrees of sky within a few degrees of the ecliptic. Moving objects beyond the orbit of Uranus are detected to a magnitude limit of mR=23-24 (depending on the image quality). To track as large a sample as possible and avoid introducing followup bias, we have developed a multi-epoch observing strategy that is spread over several years. We present the evolution of the uncertainties in ephemeris position and orbital elements of a small 10-object sample of objects tracked through these epochs as part of a preliminary presurvey starting a year before the main CFEPS project. We describe the CFEPS survey simulator, to be released in 2006, which allows theoretical models of the Kuiper belt to be compared with the survey discoveries. The simulator utilizes the well-documented pointing history of CFEPS, with characterized detection efficiencies as a function of magnitude and rate of motion on the sky. Using the presurvey objects we illustrate the usage of the simulator in modeling the classical Kuiper belt. The primary purpose of this paper is to allow a user to immediately exploit the CFEPS data set and releases as they become available in the coming months. |
| Keywords: | Trans-neptunian objects Kuiper belt objects |
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